Essential oils are very highly concentrated substances, so we rarely use pure essential oils, and only use small amounts of pure lavender or tea tree essential oils when treating burns, cuts, scrapes, and insect bites.
In all other cases, the use of essential oils must go through a process of dilution with a carrier oil.
The concentration of massage oils is about 3%, which means that 3 drops of essential oil are added to 100 drops of carrier oil (100 drops of oil is about 5 ml).
Therefore the most convenient dilution method is to use a measuring spoon or measuring cup to measure 3 drops of essential oil for every 5 ml of carrier oil.
Babies, children, pregnant women, the elderly and people with very sensitive skin should use a much lower concentration of 1.5%, 1% to 0.5% of the essential oil.
The same essential oil dilution method can be used to make the concentration we are looking for.
It is impossible to get 0.5 drops of essential oil out of a dropper, so add 3 drops of essential oil to 10 ml of carrier oil to get a 1.5% concentration, and 1 drop of essential oil to 10 ml of carrier oil to get a 0.5% concentration.
Essential oils added to water do not have a diluting effect because the oil and water do not mix evenly.
Therefore adding essential oils to bath water does not dilute them, even if the amount of water is as much as a dozen liters.
Most essential oils will float on the surface of the water to form a film, and some will adhere to our skin in an undiluted state.
This is especially important when using essential oils that can irritate the skin or are sensitive to light.
How do I dilute essential oils to be added to water? It’s easy. Simply dilute the essential oil with alcohol before adding it to the water and shake well before use so that the alcohol and essential oil are evenly mixed.